Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan.

Evangelism Activities

On Saturday, March 21, the PR Evangelism Planning Committee, consisting of evangelism committees from all the west Michigan PR churches, met. Representatives of our three churches in Illinois were also present.

At this meeting final touches were put on a rather ambitious advertising project. Plans call for these Michigan churches to run an advertisement once a month in the religion section of the Grand Rapids Press. This ad will contain the names, addresses, and worship service times of all our PR churches in the Grand Rapids area. It will also contain an approximately 300-400 word article written by one of our ministers or professors. These articles would be informative to others about what we believe and stand for, and the reason why we believe as we do.

The first ad, coming out in June, will be twice as large as the regular monthly ads would be. This is due to the fact that, in order properly to introduce our churches, Prof. Engelsma, who wrote this advertisement, needed extra space. And the committee felt that it was very important that this introduction be properly written.

It is hoped that, through these ads, a great deal of misinformation about our churches can be eliminated. In today’s world it is increasingly urgent that the truth be presented in a positive light.

The Evangelism Committee of the Randolph, WI PRC sponsored a lecture April 9 in their church auditorium. Their pastor, Rev. S. Key, spoke on the subject “Church Membership in an Evil Age.”

During this past Lenten season, the congregation of the Hope PRC of Redlands, CA sponsored a series of four special worship services. Rev. A. denHartog delivered four sermons on Sunday evenings, March 29, April 5, 12, and Good Friday, under the general theme, “The Cross in Reformed Perspective.”

These messages were advertised in the local paper. The congregation was also encouraged to pass the word individually by extending a personal invitation to friends and relatives.

Our own PR Seminary sponsored a public lecture on Thursday afternoon, March 26 at the seminary. Mr. Jon Huisken, Dean of Academic Services at Hope College, and a member of the Grandville, MI PRC, spoke on “The History of the Protestant Reformed Churches: Learning to Live With Caricature.”

Once again, this year, the congregation of the First PRC of Holland, MI conducted what is turning out to be their annual Spring Seminars. For three successive Thursdays, April 16, 23, and 30, these seminars were held at the James Center. The topic covered was entitled, “The Covenant Family. II A special invitation was extended to young couples who were just recently married, and to those raising a family.

The Council of the South Holland, IL PRC took two decisions regarding their work in evangelism. First, they decided to continue sponsoring and supervising the Bible Studies in the Fort Wayne, IN area for another six months (through September); and second, at the request of the Sovereign Redeemer Fellowship in Boise, Idaho, the Council also decided to continue supplying this group with six more months of preaching and teaching (through August).

Congregational Highlights

We can add by way of a followup to our last news column, that while in Loveland, CO for the Second Annual Young Adults Retreat, Rev. Dykstra gave a presentation of his slides of his recent trip to Ghana, Africa to the Loveland congregation the Sunday evening before the retreat.

The Choral Societies of our Faith PRC in Jenison, MI and the Hudsonville, MI PRC combined their voices this year to present two programs dealing with the suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The first concert was held in the Seminary Chapel at Calvin College on March 28, the second at Hudsonville PRC on April 12. Collections taken were designated for the Free Christian School in Edgerton, MN, and for this year’s Young People’s Convention.

Ministerial Calls

Candidate Mitch Dick has accepted the call to serve as pastor of the Immanuel PRC of Lacombe, Alberta, Canada. However, before he may be ordained into the ministry he must first be examined at a special meeting of Classis West sometime in June.

At a special congregational meeting on March 30, the members of the First PRC of Grand Rapids, MI extended a call to Rev. A. denHartog to serve as missionary pastor to the island of Jamaica. With Rev. denHartog on that trio were the Revs. W. Bekkering and J. Kortering.

The congregation of the Grandville, MI PRC called Rev. C. Haak to serve as their pastor. Revs. J. Slopsema and R. VanOverloop were part of that trio.

And we could also add here that the Council of Grandville decided that the pastorate of Rev. Kortering will conclude as of May 3.